Nine Months

Ready or not, my little girl just keeps on growing.

This month she really expanded her diet with fruits and although they took awhile to get used to, she loves them now!  I started out making them for her like I do with her veggies, but if she didn't eat it all in one sitting it went bad so fast that it wasn't saving us money, which is our main purpose for making her food at home.  So I now buy her fruits premade, but I am still making her veggies.  She loves pears and apples.  She has also had peaches and bananas and then a few different combinations of them all.  She still has no teeth so I can't venture out too far with food, but I did give her some whole peas and carrots from chicken soup that had gotten pretty soft and she was loving that.

She started crawling this month!  Exactly a week before she turned 9 months she started scooting around.  She reaches out as far as she can and then pulls herself forward with her arms.  She sticks her little bum up in the air and tries to use her toes to push her forward as well, but I think it's mostly her arms that are moving her forward.  She has gotten pretty speedy though.  She clearly knows where she wants to go and she gets there.  It's hilarious.

About halfway through the month I almost had a breakdown when I was getting up 3, and a lot of times 4, times a night to feed Quinn.  She was waking up every 2-3 hours to eat and it was killing me.  Because she has been so underweight her whole life and my milk supply has always been slightly lower than I would like it to be, I was really trying to feed her as often as she wanted so that she would gain some weight and get the nutrients that she needed.  But now that she was finally eating solids well and getting a good three meals in during the day as well as nursing 3-4 times during the day, I figured she could last a little longer through the night.  I didn't need her to sleep all the way through the night, but this was just too much.  So one day I did a little research on some sleep training methods I had heard about and decided on the Ferber Method (I think that's what it was called?) and started the next night.  When she woke up the first time I let her cry for ten minutes, then went in to comfort her without picking her up or feeding her.  She settled down a little but when I left the room she started freaking out again.  This time I waited 15 minutes, then went back in to do the same thing.  Left and she cried for another 20 minutes before I went in again and I really wanted to just feed her because I felt so bad but then all of her crying and my waiting up would have been for nothing.  So I calmed her down again she when I left she finally fell asleep.  So the first time she cried for about an hour from midnight-1:00 (which really isn't bad at all).  Then she slept until 3:30 and woke up and I fed her this time so that she would still have one nightly feeding.  She then slept until about 6:00, I waited ten minutes, went in to calm her down and she went back to sleep until about 8:30.  The next night when she woke up I waited 15 minutes to go in the first time and as soon as I went in she settled down and went back to sleep without me having to pick her up or feed her.  Then she slept until about 5:00am!  I fed her, she went back to sleep until 8:30ish.  A perfect night, on just the second night.  Most nights since then have gone similarly.  She is sleeping a little longer before she wakes up to eat around 3:00 or 4:00.  So we are down to just one, sometimes two feedings per night...which I am fine with.  I think I will transition her to fewer in another month or so.  She is still taking two naps a day and she is a great napper!  They are usually from 10:00-12:00 and then 3:00-5:00.

Anyways, she is still happier than ever.  It sounds cheesy, but I love noticing how many people Quinn makes smile.  Whenever we go out to run errands someone comments on how she has made their day better with her smile because she is just the happiest baby or even if they don't say anything I notice everyone smile at her as they pass us.  I love that she brightens peoples days.  She is such a good baby, we are so lucky to have her!

She likes to roll or crawl into little hiding places.

Her new favorite face to make.

Screaming in the hallways at church.

Again with the face..

My little Quinnie-lou-who!

Not liking her first taste of banana.

Me and my girl.

Being a little diva at church.